Christian Peace Activist Kember Describes His Iraq Hostage Ordeal

Christian peace worker, Norman Kember has spoken out in detail about his ordeal as he was taken hostage in Iraq with others from the Christian peace organisation.

|PIC1|Kember, 74, from north-west London, was held hostage in Baghdad for four months before finally being rescued on 23 March. The Baptist worker wept as he reported on BBC Radio 4 how British special forces called out for “Mr Kember” as they rescued him and his two Canadian colleagues.

Passionately Kember spoke about his fellow American Peacemaker, Tom Fox, 54, who was killed before the rescue, and he described him as a “remarkable man”.

Describing how they were abducted, Kember said, “We got in our car, the four of us with a driver and a translator, and we were just driving out towards the main road when a car stopped in front of us.”

“Out popped four men with guns, pushed out the driver and the translator and took over the car and told Jim to lie on the floor and pointed guns at us, and off we were driven.

”It was sort of an odd feeling, 'Is this actually happening to me?' It seemed unreal. I do not think I was frightened. It was just unreal, 'This is what a kidnap is all about'.

“They drove us not very far but tried to throw us off the scent - where we were - by driving round the block three or four times. I remember seeing the same boys playing football twice,” Kember said.

|TOP|He said they were then “driven through a big iron gate and into a fairly secure house. We were taken in, sat down, and we were handcuffed fairly soon after that.

“We were sat as a row, either four of us or three of us, handcuffed together, and that is where we sat for about 12 hours a day.”

Kember said they were held in a room with a window that was closed, except in the morning when the captors would “open the window a bit to let some fresh air in.

“Then we would see a bit of sunlight, but of course the windows had bars on the outside.
His voice breaking with emotion, he spoke of the moment his rescuers arrived.

“We had this sort of futon thing on the floor, and we were lying there, and suddenly we heard noise outside and then somebody calling out and then the breaking of glass and then up the stairs came these SAS agents,” he said.

“It's unbelievable because it was so sudden and first of all, because they were British, they wanted to know if 'Mr Kember' was there, and I said, 'Yes' and then they said, because I was the person at that stage chained to the door, 'This is a bolt-cutter job,' so they went down and cut the padlock and released me.”

|AD|Kember said he “continues to thank” his rescuers.

“They were brave. I disagree with their profession, but it is ironic isn't it - you go as a peace activist and you are rescued by the SAS, which is perhaps the most violent of all the British forces.

“Anyway I am grateful to them. I met one of them by chance on the way out of Baghdad and he was quite happy to chat to me and I was happy to chat to him.”

Kember’s voice was filled with emotion when asked about his reunion with his wife, as he said he had “asked for forgiveness” and she was “kind”.

He realised the “enormous stress” she had been under when he found that she had made television appeals for his release.

In an interview with The Baptist Times, Mr Kember thanked his fellow Baptists for “keeping us in your prayers, for your vigils, and for the hundreds of letters Pat and I have received”.

He said: “We have been overwhelmed by the goodwill and the concern we have been shown.”

“The experience of being confined is desperate. Not going outside for four months – it’s having that time stolen. I’d want to remind your readers how precious life is, and how precious the sight of a green tree would be when you’re deprived of it.”